


blood and snow

by Verdantei (Zerrat)



Category: RWBY
Genre: Angst, Dark, F/F, Major Character Injury, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-04
Updated: 2014-02-04
Packaged: 2018-01-11 04:13:10
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,193
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1168524
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zerrat/pseuds/Verdantei
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Ruby is hurt on a mission for Beacon, it's up to Weiss to somehow get her home.</p>
            </blockquote>





	blood and snow

**Author's Note:**

> Written for my personal Femslash February challenge, in which I race to write a short fic per day for the duration of this month. As such, the results are pretty unpolished, but will be fixed up at a later date. For now, please enjoy. 
> 
> Please note that the author **Chooses Not To Warn** in the case of this fic.

"Someone really needs to tell you that the whole "fearless leader" thing isn't meant to be taken so seriously," Weiss gasped out. "Your hero complex is going to be the _death_ of you."

Ruby didn't reply. She hadn't replied to the last ten breathless barbs that Weiss had shot her way, quiet as the - as the _dead_. Weiss' eyebrows drew down, and she swallowed hard. It was stupid in the extreme to keep entertaining that thought. It filled her with too much doubt when she needed to believe they could make it back to safety. 

Her breath misted out in front of her as she trudged on through the snowy hills, not even daring to take a moment to readjust things to make it a little easier on herself, too afraid to jostle the far too delicate load on her back. Weiss couldn't even feel her hands and shoulders anymore - she'd lost sensation in them several hills ago - and her breathing had become short and ragged. 

She didn't care about the blood that had matted her hair to the side of her face, or the deep bites that throbbed in her left calf - an infection just waiting to happen - because she knew that camp wasn't far off. Once they got back, everything would be fine. _Ruby_ would be fine, Weiss would be able to call her a headstrong idiot as usual, and they'd be able to laugh it all off as just one of the more dubious missions they were assigned. 

"We really should have taken them with us," Weiss told Ruby, uncomfortable with the silence because with her partner around, it had never lasted this long. "Yang and Blake. Yang would have thrown you over her shoulder like a sack of potatoes, not like... not like this. Blake would have seen to it that this whole thing would have never happened at all."

It was as close as Weiss could bring herself to admitting that she couldn't do it all, that maybe it had been a mistake in cleaning the nest of King Taijitu Grimm alone. 

Her eyes strayed to the splatter of blood down the flare of her sleeve, to where it streaked over the back of her hands. She hadn't had the time to waste cleaning it off properly in the snow, but every time she looked down it filled her with a sense of deep-seated panic that was almost enough to make her head spin. 

They'd gone in cocky, thinking it would be easy. And at first, it was. Weiss might have showed off a little, darting around using air steps just to prove a point that Ruby wasn't the only one who could move fast. Then they'd figured out that the whole nest just _kept going_ , more and more of the two-headed serpents swarming out.

Weiss had managed to catch a blow on the side of her head and one on her leg, slowing her down drastically. She had used up most of her Dust supply by the time they'd figured out that sealing the nest would seal the darkness in, and she'd known from the way Ruby's strikes had slowed that she'd been feeling the fight as badly as Weiss had. 

They'd shared a quick look as Weiss had jerked her head at the nest, a silent demand for Ruby to cover her while she summoned the power to take it out. It hadn't even been long to concentrate almost all her Dust into a glyph for a strike, but apparently it had been long enough. 

When Weiss had looked back to Ruby, ready to rub it in that she'd been the one to figure it all out, she'd frozen. 

Half of the last - and biggest - King Taijitu had remained when Weiss had left it to Ruby. When she'd looked again, that Grimm's fangs had been buried deeply in Ruby's shoulder, and Weiss had been able to see the glint of white fang emerging from the other side. 

It had broken all the way past Ruby's aura, and Weiss had been able to see blood splattering onto the churned up mud. The Grimm's strike had landed true, but it had put the monster in an incredibly vulnerable position, too. Weiss supposed that not many of its victims had the nerve to bite back after that, and if she hadn't been so busy being _completely horrified_ she might have been a bit more impressed at what had happened. 

Ruby had shuddered once, her grasp tightening convulsively on Crescent Rose's haft, before she'd lunged forward with a scream that Weiss wasn't ever going to forget. The movement had ripped the fangs free of the King Taijitu's maw, roots and all, before beheading the thing in a single move. 

Even before the Grimm's corporeal form had fallen to the ground, already dissolving into rose petals, Ruby had started to sway on her feet. Her right arm had hung limply at her side, Crescent Rose's blade falling to the mud. 

Weiss' grasp on Myrtenaster had slackened as Ruby had met her eyes again. 

"That... that kinda stings..." Ruby mumbled, just loud enough for Weiss to catch. Then she'd crumpled under her own weight. 

Weiss only just managed to catch her before she joined Crescent Rose on the ground, and she struggled to support Ruby's greater weight on her own. Not for the first time, Weiss cursed her stubborn lack of height and muscle mass, but that had been before she'd felt how Ruby had shuddered in her arms. 

She'd taken a look at the punctures the King Taijitu's fangs had made in her partner's shoulder, and she'd let out a hiss. Blood welled up sluggishly but steadily, obscuring Weiss' view of the injury. Ignorant of healing as she was, given her Dust capacity had only ever been geared toward offence, even she had been able to figure out that this injury was bad news. 

"Ruby -" Weiss had caught Ruby's face in her hands, not caring how it had smeared blood on her cheek. "You need to wake up. _Ruby._ "

There had been a note of panic in her voice, because she had no idea what to do, how to _fix_ it. 

Ruby hadn't responded, at least not in a coherent fashion. Weiss had been able to feel Ruby shivering, the way her entire body had been rigid in pain and shock. 

Weiss had decided then that she needed Yang and Blake, and that leaving Ruby in the snow next to a smoking crater would be unthinkable. 

Instead, Weiss had awkwardly wrapped Ruby's hooded cape around her shoulder, as tightly as she dared, before somehow managing to get her partner on her back. Crescent Rose had needed to stay behind, though. It had been a relief when Ruby had passed out somewhere in the middle of it all, but now the silence had grown too long. 

If only Ruby had mentioned how low her aura had been. Weiss wouldn't have asked her to face the King Taijitu alone, wouldn't have risked her like that. She wouldn't have needed to see Ruby bleeding on the ground, unnaturally silent and still. Weiss wouldn't have been needing to carry her back, all the while praying to whatever twisted deity was out there that she'd make it back to the medicinal supplies in time. 

She should have moved faster, should have killed the Grimm herself when she'd seen its fangs in Ruby, but overthinking things in battle had always been her weakness. She wasn't like Ruby, who moved on instinct like - the image of her ripping the fangs free and beheading the King Taijitu replayed behind her eyelids. Like _that_. 

Worst of all, Weiss didn't want to lose Ruby. Not her _partner_ , maddening as she could be at times. How often had Weiss scoffed at her, called Ruby a bother, a child, an irritant? 

She didn't mean it anymore. She hadn't meant it for at least a year, even if she'd never come out and said as much to Ruby. She couldn't have asked for a better partner, and now... she really didn't want to be alone.

 _You idiot, Ruby._ Her throat felt tight. 

Weiss felt Ruby's ragged intake of air just before she heard the low whine of pain, and she couldn't help but flinch at the sound. If she'd been a half-decent partner, if Ruby hadn't been such a headstrong idiot, she would never have had to hear it at all. It made some deep ache in Weiss' chest become horribly sharp, and she swallowed unsteadily. 

"...you're not complaining at me," Ruby mumbled, and her breath was warm against the exposed skin of Weiss' neck. Weiss twitched slightly at the sensation, squeezing her eyes shut for a moment. She was just damn glad that nobody was around to see her highly inappropriate flush. 

"I'm too busy trying to get you back home," Weiss forced out after a moment, and confident that Ruby wouldn't see, she let herself smile in relief at the sound of her partner's voice. At least if Ruby was talking, then Weiss knew for sure she wasn't dead back there. 

Ruby was silent again for a long while as Weiss trudged on, and she listened to the sound of her shallow, uneven breathing. 

"...totally knew you cared." Ruby's voice was tight from the pain, slurred from her blood loss, but somehow she still had it in her to tease. 

This time, Weiss didn't really mind it. 

"Just... just save your strength. We're almost there, and Yang is going to kill us both for this." Every time she blinked, Weiss could see the blood spattering to the mud. It was so hard to keep herself from breaking down, so hard to keep moving. 

She really could have lectured Ruby on being careful. She could have mentioned that Ruby's communication skills on the battlefield apparently still needed a lot of work, but... none of that really mattered. Not at the moment, with worry and relief seeming to occupy equal ground in Weiss' mind. 

"Besides, of course I care." Weiss swallowed, fixing her eyes on some point in the distance. "You're my partner. Nobody gets to kill you without my prior approval."

Ruby didn't laugh, and Weiss wondered if she'd overstepped herself.

There was a long delay, filled only with the sound of Ruby's ragged breathing. When Weiss finally looked over her shoulder, wondering if she'd need to grudgingly apologise, a smile had curled the corner of Ruby's lips. 

"Noted," Ruby said softly, and that seemed to use up whatever strength she'd rallied. The next few minutes were only silence - silence that didn't suit Ruby at all and set Weiss' mind to painful worry. 

"Ruby?" Weiss pressed, when the silence lasted just a little too long. 

"...hm?" Ruby's voice sounded dazed, as though she was about to pass out once more. Weiss looked aside, and she carefully tightened her grasp under Ruby's knees. Her calf and head throbbed, but it was nothing she couldn't handle. 

"We can skip the lectures. Just... don't do this to me again, okay?" The request sounded strangled, a trifle _desperate_. 

"Too hard... to train another?" Ruby lips were almost pressed against Weiss' ear, her head sagged against the nape of Weiss' neck. Weiss' heart clenched - it was her fault that even now, Ruby thought she was a bother, just an _irritant_ , when it couldn't be further from the truth. 

Weiss pretended to scoff at that, her expression softening as she looked over her shoulder. "Like I'd ever let there be another." 

She flushed when she realised what she said, but she didn't try to retract them or qualify them. 

"Weiss." Ruby's hand curled into Weiss' collar, weak and trembling with the effort. "You've always meant a lot to me, too."

Weiss sighed, her smile fading as she turned her attention back to the impossible task before her. As much of a reassurance as the words were, it did nothing to dispel the worry she felt over the sharp shallowness of Ruby's breath in her ear, the dead weight she was only barely able to carry. She could feel the blood seeping through the makeshift bandages, cooling in the freezing air, and she tried to pick up the pace. 

She finally spotted the camp around the next hill. In spite of her exhaustion, the exhilarating relief gave her enough energy to shout for their attention, only too glad to forget things like poise and image for now. She saw a few of the Beacon students look up, and after a moment, they began to run towards them. 

Weiss swayed on her feet, blinking back the sweat from her eyes and ignoring the way her head throbbed in time with her racing heart. She could barely stand, but Ruby had it far worse.

"We made it, just like I told you," Weiss breathed, forcing out a note of humourless laughter that felt tight and lopsided. "You all need to stop doubting my stamina now, Ruby."

Weiss looked back over her shoulder when Ruby didn't respond, and she realised with a jolt that she hadn't heard Ruby's ragged breath in a while.

**Author's Note:**

> That's certainly an ending open to interpretation! :D
> 
> *RUNS*
> 
>  
> 
> ~~please blame my beta fmo for egging me into this ending, between you guys and me, I might do a follow up, any votes yes?~~
> 
> Edit 11 May 2017: there was indeed a second chapter to this! I never particularly liked it, so I've deleted it. If anyone is interested in it I can throw the follow up chapter over onto my tumblr! Just let me know.
> 
> Edit 8 December 2017: https://verdantei.tumblr.com/post/168282978392/blood-and-snow-22


End file.
